The Gamble

by Alice Ward

  “This girl from my childhood showed up a little over a year ago when I needed her most. I’d forgotten how much I was in love with her, but seeing her was like a punch to the gut. She’s far too good for me, and yet, I can’t see my life without her. I’ve been trying to be good to her and push her away, but she’s fucking persistent, and honestly, I’m done fighting.” I unbuckled and got out of the car.

  “Who is she?” Ronald moved up to hold the door for us.

  “My lawyer.” I glanced over at him. “Talk about things being a little skewed.”

  “Oh shit.” He laughed and moved into the elevator. “The lawyer who won your first case or lost your second?”

  “Both. She’s been with me through all this shit. It’s time for me to man up and promise her anything she wants if she’ll just wait with me for one more year.” I ran my hand over my head and wished like hell my hair would grow back faster. I felt more like myself with it being a bit longer.

  “Well, you know what I said.” He patted my back as we got off the elevator. “I’m good with you having someone over as long as we follow the other rules. Just nothing too excessive. The house is fully monitored. Not that anyone looks at the feeds too often, but if they do, we want to make sure they don’t bring the hammer down on us.”

  “I appreciate that more than you know.” I stopped by the receptionist and smiled. “I’m here to see Alisa Manning.”

  “Sure, Mr. Kellington. We’re glad to see you out amongst the land of the free again. We’ve all been rooting for you.”

  I smiled at her before turning back to Ronald. “I need to sign a few papers, so feel free to come in with me.”

  “Naw, I’m good. I’ll wait here for you guys.” He walked over to one of the plush leather couches and sat down.

  “Zek.” Lizzy moved toward me as I turned and offered her a quick hug. “How are you?”

  “I’m good. Better.” I stepped back as she walked over to Ronald and spoke to him.

  Alisa walked down the hall toward me, captivating me with every part of her. From the confidence on her face to the stiffness of her shoulders to the slight tilt of her chin. The woman owned the place wherever she went. Her gray skirt and white button down shirt left my cock twitching in my slacks. She wore her clothes far too well, but it was the delicious silky skin underneath that I demanded access to.

  “Mr. Kellington. Right this way.” She stopped in front of me, gave me a curt nod and turned to walk back down toward her office.

  My eyes moved along the swell of her ass in her skirt, my imagination going berserk. “It’s Zek, but I’m thinking you’ve been told that a few too many times at this point.”

  “Right, Zek. Come on in.” She opened her door and gave me a sexy smirk as I walked in.

  The hope that she would close the door and let me press her against it in a warm, albeit lusty welcome was short lived. She was in business mode, which I wanted nothing to do with.

  “Let’s sign this stuff and go eat.” I moved to her desk and unbuttoned the top button on my jacket. “I have plans for you for the next twelve hours, so you better be free.”

  “Twelve hours?” She lifted her eyebrow at me, playing cool far better than I’d ever thought her possible of.

  I leaned down and signed the papers as I mumbled my response. “Yep. I plan on teasing you a little, you know... make you think you aren’t going to be taken complete advantage of.” I glanced up. “Then I need time to kiss and lick at every inch of you. That’s going to be a thorough job, so you should prepare for that.”

  She pressed her hands to the desk and leaned over a little as her long blonde hair spilled over her shoulder. The top of her shirt opened just a little and left the beautiful creamy-white tops of her breasts on display. I stifled a groan.

  “And then you’ll have to take a break and lay there while I punish you for ignoring me for the last year.” She leaned forward aggressively. “I’m going to bring you to the very edge of pleasure, and then clamp down tightly, forcing you to wait.”

  “Fuck,” I mumbled and stood up. “Let’s not have lunch. Let’s just tear into each other. You need it as badly as I do.”

  “Nope. Lunch sounds great, because as much as I want to lay myself open and bare to you, it’s your turn first. My days of doing that shit are over.” She picked up her purse and walked toward the door, making sure to reach out and run her nails over my erection. “Come on. I have too many plans for you to just stand around here and threaten me. I assume your words are nothing more than empty promises.”

  I turned and reached for her wrist, grabbing it and forcing her back to press against my chest. I cupped her throat as my other hand patted the front of her sex just over her skirt. I licked at her ear and breathed in deeply. “You know me far better than that, baby.”

  “Mmmmm. I do.” She rubbed her ass against my arousal and pulled from me, leaving me feeling overheated and highly aggressive. I could only hope that our trip to the restaurant would allow me to calm down a little and regain my head. She was far beyond anything I deserved, and yet everything I wanted in my life.

  I was ready to get on my fucking knees at the restaurant and offer her marriage if it meant that she would stick around for the long term. Actually... I’d give anything for just the afternoon and evening. The future could be discussed at our next lunch date. I chuckled at the thought and followed her out into the hall as she introduced herself to Ronald.

  CHAPTER SIX

  Alisa

  “Hi. I’m Alisa Manning. Nice to meet you.” I extended my hand to the kind looking guy who sat in the waiting room for Zek.

  “I’m Ronald Burk. Nice to meet you too.” He smiled kindly and lifted his eyebrow as he turned his attention to Zek. “Where are we taking this pretty lady today?”

  I walked to the door and held it open as Zek moved in behind me. My body was on fire, my insides aching with the need for a long week of fucking the man beside me. Our relationship had started with me wanting to explore lust as a horny teenager, but I didn’t feel like it had really expanded much past that. I still wanted to drown in the depths of pleasure with the sexy bastard behind me. His additional muscle mass and short haircut left me a bit dizzy with desire. I hadn’t ever been attracted to that type of guy, but seeing it on Zek... I was sold. His aggression was another intense turn on altogether.

  “Anywhere she wants to go.” Zek touched my lower back and pressed the button on the elevator.

  “You choose. You don’t get out much.” I turned and looked up at him to still see the desire he’d laid on me only moments before. “I’ll eat anything.”

  “Alright. How about we go to that sushi bar you love?” His fingers dug into me a little, and I could see how tightly he was holding himself together. It wouldn’t be long and he would unleash every bit of that pent up emotion onto my body.

  I couldn’t wait.

  Having not gone back to see him for the last two weeks was my only means of sending him a serious message. Yes, there was lust between us, but it wasn’t going to be fully exploited until I could figure out where our future lay. I needed him to be one hundred percent committed, or I needed to move on.

  Lizzy was right about figuring out if there was someone worth fighting for, and I’d quickly discovered what I expected to find. There was very much something worth doing anything for between us. He had always been the only man for me, and that wasn’t changing any time soon.

  “I’d love that.” I got in the elevator and turned to Ronald. “That sound okay with you too?”

  “Yep. I’ll eat anything as well. I’m a bachelor.” He chuckled and crossed his arms over his chest. “Zek here tells me that you guys knew each other as kids. How in the world did you reconnect?”

  Warmth spread up my chest and covered my cheeks. I couldn’t help but wonder how much of our story Zek had shared with the man.

  “I saw his story on the news, and we lawyers talk amongst ourselves, so I decided to get involved. Zek was my
older brother’s best friend back in the day.” I turned and patted his chest lovingly. “Clark still relives those early days through more stories than anyone would want to hear.”

  “I want to hear them.” Zek chuckled and trapped my hand on his chest. “I told Ronald that you were my girl too.”

  “Am I now?” I tugged my hand from him and glanced back at Ronald. “He’s just full of hot air today. You have to discern truth from lie with him.”

  Ronald chuckled and moved up beside me as Zek slipped his hand into mine. I couldn’t refuse him, nor did I want to.

  “Maybe he’s just talking the future into existence. I hear that stuff works more often than not.” Ronald shrugged and gave me a warm smile. “Everyone deserves a second chance, right?”

  “Your check is in the mail.” Zek smiled over at me. “We’re going two blocks to the left. No need to use the car unless my girl wants to.”

  “Nope, and stop calling me that. You’ve yet to promise me anything but a load of inappropriateness.” I gave him a cheeky grin and pulled my phone from my purse as it buzzed. “I have to take this, so lead the way, and I should be done by the time we get down there.”

  They moved past me and I followed just behind them as I spoke with a new client about various items we would need to assess his case. I was grateful for the repetition of some of my jobs, especially now. There was no way to concentrate on anything but Zek Kellington’s beautiful backside as we walked down the street.

  Our conversation would be the last piece of the puzzle for me. Then, I was giving myself over to him fully, and if anyone knew how to make my body and heart purr in tandem, it was the broad-shouldered man before me. I stifled a shiver at the thought of a twelve-hour lust fest with him and tried to focus on my conversation, which was virtually impossible.

  ***

  I waited until the food was delivered to start in on the discussion I wanted to have with Zek. I was grateful that Ronald was sitting at the bar just behind us, which was more privacy than I expected to have.

  “Look... I need to completely clear the air between us before we move into anything else with each other.” I picked up my chopsticks and glanced up to find Zek watching me intently. The hunger in his gaze was stifling, but I’d seen it enough times that I could still manage to keep my head about me.

  “I’d like that a lot.” He took a quick sip of his tea and leaned back. “I get to go first though.”

  “Really? You selfish ass.” I gave him a quirky smile and popped a piece of sushi into my mouth.

  “You love it.” He picked up his fork, unwilling to look like a fool with the tinker toys, or so he’d called them. “I spent those last few weeks before prison trying hard to figure out what the hell you were doing back in my life. It had been more than eighteen years, Alisa. I left my senior year and never looked back for several reasons, and I’ve figured them out.”

  “Do tell. I’m interested in hearing why you thought that was a good idea.” I tried to keep a calm about me that would leave him opening up, but it was damn hard. Those reasons were directly linked to me feeling like I would never find someone like Zek — ever. They were the igniting force behind me losing him.

  “I was four years older than you, and I didn’t want to put your life on hold or mine until we were old enough to be together. I couldn’t have been a college freshman with a high school sophomore as a girlfriend. No one would have accepted that, not your parents or my mother.” He ate a few bites, but never broke eye contact with me. “By the time I decided that we were both old enough, you were dating some dude I assume was Ben. I never asked his name. I didn’t want to know.”

  “How did you know I was dating someone?” My insides tightened. Maybe I wasn’t ready for this conversation.

  “I never stopped asking Clark about you, baby. You have to know that.” He gave me a sexy smirk. “I didn’t resurrect anything between us because I’d talked myself into believing that you were a horny kid and I was your boy toy, and quite happy being just that. You deserved better than me, and I honestly still believe that shit.”

  “And if I’m not open to exploring any other option in my life but you?” I was ready to lay it all on the line. No more pussy-footing around about my intent and desires.

  “Then I’m ready for that too.” He reached across the table and touched my fingers. “I love you, and I’ve always loved you. I think part of growing up together leaves me wanting to protect you from guys like me, including me. I didn’t want you to wait for this last year. It was a waste of your life, and honestly, I can’t help but feel like that’s my fault.”

  “But you don’t get to tell me what I do with my life. You and Clark have been trying since we were kids, each taking turns to make sure I was okay when the time called for it. I’m stronger than both of you put together.” I turned my hand over and clasped his. “I want us to be together, one hundred percent. I want to talk about a future where we sift through the ashes of this last year and rebuild. I want kids, marriage, but not with anyone but you. None of that has changed for me.” I threaded my fingers through his, willing the tears back that threatened so close to the surface. I looked back up at him. “And you know what terrifies me most? That my love will never measure up as enough to bring that future into reality.”

  His eyes filled with tears, and mine did too.

  “Fuck, baby.” He pulled my hand toward him and leaned over to kiss my fingertips. “I don’t deserve a woman like you.”

  “No, you don’t, but that’s beside the point.” I chuckled through my tears as they dripped down my face. “I need to know you feel the same or I have to walk away. And don’t look me in the eye and tell me that you don’t have strong feelings for me unless you truly don’t. No more of this self-sacrificing bullshit that leaves me broken and hating life. You’re not doing anyone any favors.”

  He nodded, and I continued. “I need to know now if you want us, Zek. I’m willing to wait forever and sneak in your window until we’re eighty, but I need to know that my heart’s where it belongs. I need—”

  “I need you. I’m sorry for pushing back, and it won’t happen again. When I see my future, I see you and me together with a huge family and loads of adventure. I can’t imagine sharing any part of myself with anyone but you, but hear me when I tell you how uncomfortable I am with you sacrificing for me. I did this shit to myself. Dragging you into it with me just makes it so much worse.” He took a shaky breath and released my hand.

  “Then feel like shit, and then get over it.” I picked up my napkin and dotted my eyes. “I’m not going anywhere, but understand that me not budging includes us not moving forward until this is settled.”

  “There’s nothing else to say then. I love you and want a future with you, whatever that looks like. You’re the only woman for me, and though I hate myself for needing you enough to ask you to be with a piece of shit like me, I do and I’m asking you to be mine. Just mine.”

  I nodded as my whole body came to life. I’d been waiting to hear those words since I was a girl, and though I didn’t want to be overwhelmed by all of it, I was.

  “Tell me you will.” He leaned forward with a hungry intensity that drove spikes of desire through the center of me.

  “I always have been, Zek. Of course, I always will.”

  ***

  Ronald waved us off after we got back to Zek’s place, feigning exhaustion and the need for a nap. Zek locked up the house and reached for me as I stood by the kitchen sink, letting my eyes move across the array of colors the fall leaves created along his backyard.

  “I feel like I have a new lease on life.” He pressed his mouth just below my ear and wrapped his arms around me. “You’re all I want, which has been the case for a long-ass time.”

  “You hide it well.” I turned in his arms and slid my hands up his chest. “No more talking, right? Only grunting and the sounds of pleasure that we can pull from each other.”

  “Yeah, that.” He leaned down and consumed
my mouth as his fingers raced through my hair, wrapped around the strands and tugged enough to force me to lift my face toward him. The thick press of his tongue in my mouth caused a long groan to leave me. He echoed his pleasure in tandem and pulled back, licking at his perfect mouth as his eyes hooded. “To the bedroom. I want privacy while I take my time with you.”

  I lifted to my toes and nipped at his lips before turning and walking toward the back of the house. I worked on my shirt and then my skirt, and by the time he locked the door behind us, I was standing in a skimpy pair of white panties and a lacy bra.

  “Shit. I couldn’t have imagined this any better in my wildest fantasies.” He worked on his shirt as I turned and watched him intently.

  “I’m in your fantasies?” I cooed softly.

  “Baby, you are my fantasy.” He tugged his shirt off his shoulders and moved toward me, sliding his hands over my hips and cupping my ass tightly as he leaned in for another long kiss.

  I ran my hands down his back, exploring the swell of muscle that ran all over his upper body.

  “I love this.” I brushed my hands over his pectorals before moving forward and pressing my mouth to his nipple.

  “Good. I hoped you would.” He growled and slid his fingers into my hair as I explored my new playground of delights. I reached the top of his slacks and dipped my tongue down below the waistband where the thick head of his cock pulsed rhythmically. “Oh fuck, Alisa. I need that, baby. Take me in your mouth.”

  “Yeah.” I worked frantically on his pants until they dropped over his hips. I pushed his tight black undies off too and leaned forward, pressing my mouth to him as he brushed his fingers by my face.

  “Just hold still and let me fuck you. Please...” He glanced down at me, and we locked gazes, both of us understanding that the afternoon might be a little rough, but the need to bleed out a year’s worth of passion would lead to something softer in time.

  I nodded and settled onto the bed as he moved in and took my hair back into a tight grip.

  “I love you so much,” he whispered and pressed himself into my mouth as his free hand cupped the side of my neck. I gripped his thighs and worked to breathe through my nose as I gave myself over to him.